Experiencing Jet Lag

I have traveled quite extensively to a few countries in the world. I do not travel as much as I want to due to many limitations. Nonetheless, I am proud to mention that I have gained good experience traveling to some distant parts of the world. I have come to understand about Jet lag & why it is experienced during the first days of arriving to a far & abroad destination.

So what is actually Jet lag? I call it a value depreciation of holidays. In general, not only that there is a chance that you may have to wait 17 hours for a transit flight at the airport but also you are advised to spend a day or more of your limited holidays sleeping & simplifying your holiday activities.

Anyway, let us understand more about Jet lag. It is a time-zone displacement disorder also known as Desynchronosis. The main symptoms are emotional & physical fatigue suffered after a high speed air travel across several time-zones. Now we know why we do not experience Jet lag while traveling on trains, ships or other relatively slow transportation vehicles.

Our bodies are accustomed to function in almost exact 24 hour cycles. Basically; metabolism, temperature, digestion, elimination (liquid & solids from our bodies) & sleep work in a 24 hour cycle.

A disruption of the cycle occurs for instance when you travel from New York at noon on a flight to Paris. Paris is currently at 5.00 pm during daylight saving time. The flight takes seven long hours. Your body is still thinking that it is 7.00 pm upon your arrival at the Paris airport. However, it is now 12 midnight in Paris. Perhaps you have sleeping pills prescriptions so you may want to eat some of them & sleep just like the Parisians tonight.

Other functions of your body must adjust accordingly as well. You may have got your sleeping pattern in tune by the help of sleeping pills but your other bodily functions are still on the New York schedule. Until your bodily functions adjust naturally then it will be normal for you to feel irritated & easily become tired. Recovery is faster for younger folks as compared to the elderly.

A study by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) estimates that it takes one day for our bodies to recover completely from each hour time-zone change we experience on our plane flights.

That would mean that it will take 5 days for your body to readjust & function as normally as it did when you were in New York. A flight from New York to Western Europe goes through five different time-zones. You will be feeling quite disoriented from being your normal self for half of a ten day holiday trip.

Traveling to & from places halfway around the world like from Siberia to Los Angeles will most certainly pass through a lot more than five time-zones (Eleven time zones). Eleven days of feeling uneasy out of a two week holiday is not exactly a good idea of an enjoyable holiday.

Therefore, in our future travels we should make sure to plan a longer holiday trip relative to the days which we should spend recovering from Jet lag. Most importantly, we will come to appreciate more of our holidays in far & abroad destinations.

Abas Kamal bin Sulaiman is a healthy living & lifestyle enthusiast minus the urge to practice a low calorie diet. He writes on a variety of healthy living & lifestyle based topics. Visit http://abassterinternational.blogspot.com

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